لطفا منتظر باشید ...
IV
SHOWING THAT
THE SELF IS WEAKENED BY ASKING
| O THOU who hast gathered taxes from lions, | 435 |
| Thy need hath caused thee to become a fox in disposition. | |
| Thy maladies are the result of indigence: | |
| This disease is the source of thy pain. | |
| It is robbing thine high thoughts of their dignity | |
| And putting out the light of thy noble imagination. | 440 |
| Quaff rosy wine from the jar of existence! | |
| Snatch thy money from the purse of Time! | |
| Like Omar, come down from thy camel!51 | |
| Beware of incurring obligations, beware! | |
| How long wilt thou sue for office | 445 |
| And ride like children on a reed? | |
| A nature that fixes its ghaze on the sky | |
| Becomes debased by receiving benefits. | |
| By asking, poverty is made more abject; | |
| By begging, the beggar is made poorer, | 450 |
| Asking disintegrates the Self | |
| And deprives of illumination the Sinai bush of the Self. | |
| Do not scatter thy handful of dust; | |
| Like the moon, scrape food from thine own side! | |
| Albeit thou art poor and wretched | 455 |
| And overwhelmed by affliction, | |
| Seek not thy daily bread from the bounty of another, | |
| Seek not water from the fountain of the sun. | |
| Lest thou be put to shame before the Prophet | |
| On the Day when every soul shall be stricken with fear. | 460 |
| The moon gets sustenance from the table of the sun | |
| And bears the brand of his bounty on her heart. | |
| Pray God for courage! Wrestle with Fortune! | |
| Do not sully the honour of the pure religion! | |
| He who swept the rubbish of idols out of the Ka'ba | 465 |
| Said that God loves a man that earns his living. | |
| Woe to him that accepts bounty from another's table | |
| And lets his neck be bent with benefits! | |
| He hath consumed himself with the lightning of the favours bestowed on him, | |
| He hath sold his honour for a paltry coin, | 470 |
| Happy the man who thirsting in the sun | |
| Does not crave of Khizr a cup of water!52 | |
| His brow is not moist with the shame of beggary; | |
| He is a man still, not a piece of clay, | |
| That noble youth walks under heaven | 475 |
| With his head erect like the pine | |
| Are his hands empty? The more is he master of himself. | |
| Do his fortunes languish? The more alert is he. | |
| A whole ocean, if gained by begging is but a sea of fire; | |
| Sweet is a little dew gathered by one's own hand. | 480 |
| Be a man of honour, and like the bubble. | |
| Keep the cup inverted ever. in the midst of the sea!53 |
